Acceleration: when a match changes pace
Acceleration answers a single question: is this match faster or slower now than it had been? It does not compare the match with other matches. It compares the match with itself.
The whole calculation
- It measures activity. Dangerous attacks plus 3 times shots on target, both sides added together. One shot on target weighs 3 dangerous attacks — a choice made by StatGol, not a constant of nature.
- It works out the match's pace. Total activity divided by minutes played.
- It works out the window's pace. Activity in the last 5 or 15 minutes, divided by 5 or by 15.
- It divides one by the other. Window pace over match pace. That is the number in the column.
A worked example
A match at 60 minutes, with round numbers so the arithmetic stays visible:
| Whole match | Last 15′ | |
|---|---|---|
| Dangerous attacks | 48 | 20 |
| Shots on target | 6 | 3 |
| Activity | 48 + 3 × 6 = 66 | 20 + 3 × 3 = 29 |
| Tempo per minute | 66 ÷ 60 = 1.10 | 29 ÷ 15 = 1.93 |
Acceleration (15′) = 1.93 ÷ 1.10 = 1.76. The last quarter of an hour ran 76% above the match's own average pace.
How to read the number
1.0 means the match is keeping its own pace. Above that, it has sped up; below, it has slowed down. 0.6 is forty per cent below what it had been.
The two windows together say more than either one. The 5-minute one high with the 15-minute one near 1 is a burst: one move, a short sequence. Both high is a change that is holding.
The detail that misleads most: it is relative
Because the comparison is with the match itself, a dead match that wakes up a little scores high acceleration, and a match that has been frantic since kickoff scores close to 1 even in full flow.
That is why acceleration of 1.5 in one match and 0.9 in another does not tell you which has more action right now. It only tells you which has changed more. For absolute volume, the measure is the dangerous-attack rate.
When the number is missing
- With less than 8 of accumulated activity, already weighted. Dividing by a very small number produces huge jumps from a single move.
- While the match has fewer minutes than the window.
- In the first minutes of each half: the 5-minute window only counts from minute 6, and the 15-minute one from minute 16, starting again in the second half.
What acceleration does not mean
It describes what has just happened, not what is coming. A match can speed up because one side needs a goal, and just as well because the other has stopped defending. A match speeding up is also not a match about to score: the calculation adds dangerous attacks and shots on target, and it can speed up without anyone hitting the target.
One of the ready-made rules uses exactly the two windows together: it lights up when both pass 1.5.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026.